Gaza death toll since “ceasefire” tops 1,000; 15 charged with impeding ICE agents in Minnesota; Ecuador declares new state of emergency

Drop Site Daily: June 17, 2026

U.S. and Iran to formally sign interim agreement Friday in Switzerland. President Donald Trump: “If they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs”. Hezbollah says Iran will press for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Proposed U.S.-Iran deal includes $300 billion private investment fund, Reuters reports. Iranian source disputes the accuracy of Bloomberg’s memorandum text. Israel denied access to draft U.S.-Iran memorandum. Three Iranian supertankers exit U.S. Navy blockade. U.S. ran covert ship-to-ship operation to bypass Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Israeli airstrikes and shelling in Lebanon on Wednesday. Israeli strikes kill four in south Lebanon, including in a “double-tap” attack. Amnesty International: Israel’s no-return orders in southern Lebanon amount to war crime. 1,005 killed in Gaza since October 2025 “ceasefire.” Gaza Health Ministry warns it may suspend medical referral program amid Israeli restrictions. Israeli settlers set fire to two mosques, leave racist graffiti. Israel approves 576 new settlement units, construction project in Hebron without Palestinian approval. U.S. pressures Palestinian Authority to withdraw international legal cases against Israel. Senate narrowly blocks war powers resolution on Iran. Trump invokes Defense Production Act to boost weapons. Trump delays Director of National Intelligence nominee’s confirmation hearing, ties surveillance renewal to voter ID bill. Fifteen charged in Minnesota over response to immigration crackdown. ProPublica: At least 776,000 children lost SNAP benefits despite GOP assurances they’d be protected. U.S. military kills one in boat strike in eastern Pacific. G7 agrees to expand sanctions on Russian oil and gas exports. Sudanese gold miners killed in strikes near Egyptian border. Ecuador declares new state of emergency. Brazil’s Supreme Court sentences Eduardo Bolsonaro to prison over U.S. lobbying campaign.

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U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, listen as national anthems are played at the Pentagon in Washington, DC on June 15, 2026. Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images.

Iran and Ceasefire

• U.S. and Iran to formally sign interim agreement Friday in Switzerland: The United States and Iran are expected to officially sign their interim agreement Friday at the Bürgenstock resort near Lucerne, Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Tuesday. The ceremony will reportedly bring together U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

• Trump: “If they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs”: U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday the U.S.-Iran framework agreement remains unfinished, telling reporters at the G7 summit in France: “It’s a memorandum of understanding. And if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them.” Trump later doubled down on the threat, saying: “If they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head.”

  • Trump insisted that the U.S would not spend any taxpayer money amid reports the agreement includes $300 billion in reconstruction funding for Iran, saying: “We’re not putting up 10 cents. We are not investing, and we do not have a fund.” Trump said he is not asking Gulf countries to invest in Iran under the proposed agreement, but would not oppose such a move, adding, “I would say they won’t be doing it for a while until they find out the behaviour [of the Iranians].”

  • Despite his threats, Trump described the current framework with Iran as “very strong” and said there is a “99.99 percent chance” that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon. Trump also pointed to market reactions as evidence of confidence in the negotiations, saying: “The market has gone wild. It’s gone through the roof. And oil has tumbled down. That speaks louder than words.”

• Hezbollah says Iran will press for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon: Hezbollah said it received assurances from Iran that Tehran will demand the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in the next phase of its talks with the United States, according to a Tuesday statement from the group’s media relations office.

  • A senior U.S. official said Monday that an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon is not part of the U.S.-Iran deal, and Israeli leaders have vowed to keep their forces in place.

  • Iran has insisted that Washington, as guarantor of the agreement, is responsible for compelling Israel to halt its war on Lebanon. “Any military attack by the Israeli regime against Lebanon, or the continued occupation of Lebanese territory, is a violation of the memorandum of understanding,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. Iran’s top joint military command, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, accused Israel of violating the ceasefire in Lebanon dozens of times since it reached an agreement with the U.S. and warned Israel Tuesday to expect a “harsh response” from Iranian armed forces if it does not halt its attacks on southern Lebanon.

  • Hezbollah’s Secretary General Naim Qassem also thanked Iran for making an end to the war on Lebanon a “first and fundamental clause” of the U.S.-Iran agreement. He wrote that Iran had turned “the only effective glimmer of hope in stopping the Israeli-American aggression against Lebanon into a reality.”

• Proposed U.S.-Iran deal includes $300 billion private investment fund, Reuters reports: The proposed U.S.-Iran agreement includes a $300 billion private investment fund aimed at driving investment into Iran, with more than half the financing reportedly already committed, Reuters reports, citing a source with knowledge of the negotiations.

  • The fund, known as the Reconstruction and Development Fund, would not use U.S. government money and would only become operational if a final agreement is reached after a 60-day negotiating period.

  • Companies from the United States, Gulf states, Asia, South America and Africa have committed financing for projects in energy, manufacturing, transport, and logistics. The Financial Times separately reported on Tuesday that companies in Europe, South Korea, and Japan have a strong interest in investing in Iran if sanctions are lifted.

  • The fund is separate from negotiations over sanctions relief and the release of Iranian assets frozen abroad, and emerged as an alternative after Iran had initially sought $400 billion in compensation for war damage.

• Iranian source disputes the accuracy of Bloomberg’s memorandum text: Tasnim News, citing a source close to Iran’s negotiating team, reported on Wednesday that the 14-point Iran-U.S. memorandum published by Bloomberg is not accurate and contains “several deficiencies.”

  • The source specifically claims that Bloomberg’s descriptions of Article 1 and the provisions related to the Strait of Hormuz are inaccurate and omit key language.

  • The source added that the memorandum’s full text will not be made public until after its expected signing on Friday, in line with an agreement between the parties.

• Israel denied access to draft U.S.-Iran memorandum: Israel formally requested access to the draft memorandum of understanding being negotiated between the United States and Iran, but was denied by Washington, a diplomatic correspondent for the Israeli network i24 reported on Tuesday.

• Three Iranian supertankers exit U.S. Navy blockade: Two National Iranian Tanker Company VLCC supertankers, Diona and Hero2, exited the U.S. Navy blockade perimeter on Tuesday, according to Tanker Trackers. The ships are carrying nearly 4 million barrels of Iranian crude oil, and their successful transit would mark Iran’s first crude oil exports in two months. A third tanker, operated by the National Iranian Tanker Company and carrying 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil, was also reported to have exited the Strait on Wednesday.

• U.S. ran covert ship-to-ship operation to bypass Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade: The United States has been running a covert operation since early May to keep Gulf oil exports moving despite Iran’s effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with more than 90 million barrels transferred through the system, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Rather than sending fully loaded supertankers through the waterway, smaller tankers transit under a U.S.-managed security and surveillance network before transferring their cargo offshore to waiting Very Large Crude Carriers at two locations off Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Citing satellite imagery, shipping records, and more than a dozen sources, Reuters found that at least 92 vessels have taken part in the ship-to-ship operation, employing techniques similar to those Iran has long used to evade sanctions. U.S. officials denied to Reuters that CENTCOM forces are directly involved in the transfers, and the outlet found no evidence that American forces directly escort the ships or participate in the operation themselves.

• Vance does media rounds to discuss MOU: Vice President JD Vance made several media appearances on Tuesday to detail what the memorandum of understanding entails, as well as to make the case for the ceasefire to President Trump’s domestic base.

  • With SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly, Vance once again reiterated that “Lebanon is included” in what he called a “true regional peace deal,” before describing the ceasefire there as “dirty” and saying the level of fighting has dropped. He added that “sometimes a ceasefire just means they’re shooting less and that’s the progress.”

  • Vance said Iran would not receive economic benefits if it continued funding Hezbollah. He added that “not a penny of American money” will be flowing to Tehran. Instead, the U.S. would allow other countries to invest in Iran and rebuild the country if Tehran changes its behavior.

  • He also said the memorandum of understanding would be released by Friday at the latest, possibly tomorrow, citing “delicate diplomatic” sequencing requested by Iran and mediators, including Pakistan and Qatar.

  • Vance also pushed back on pro-Israel hawks criticizing the deal, saying they were “gung-ho about starting this thing” but now object to stopping it, calling their position effectively “an endless conflict” that would continue “until every bomb has been dropped or until every Iranian is dead.”

• Iran moves to connect electricity grid with Qatar: Iran says it will soon begin connecting its electricity grid with Qatar, reviving a 2022 memorandum of understanding to facilitate the transfer of up to 1,000 megawatts of power, the country’s Energy Minister and the IRGC-affiliated outlet Tasnim announced Tuesday. Abbas Aliabadi, the energy minister, said Iran is also studying electricity links with other Gulf Cooperation Council states.

• Trump says he never sought regime change in Iran: President Donald Trump said Tuesday at the G7 summit that he never sought regime change in Iran. “I never cared about regime change. It [was] never a part,” he said, before claiming that one occurred because “the first group” of leaders were “dead.” Trump described the officials the U.S. is now negotiating with as “very rational,” “strong,” and “smart” people who are “not radicalized” and are “looking to help their country.”

• Sudan scales back Iranian arms purchases to court Trump administration, Bloomberg reports: Sudan’s military has scaled back its purchases of Iranian weapons in a bid to court the Trump administration ahead of any future talks to end the country’s three-year civil war, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Iranian drones and other arms have helped the Sudanese Armed Forces win back territory from the rival Rapid Support Forces, but have become a source of tension with the Trump administration, whose backing the Army has sought during the war.

Lebanon

• Israeli airstrikes and shelling on Wednesday: Israeli forces carried out a series of attacks across southern Lebanon on Wednesday, including artillery shelling, drone strikes and air raids targeting several towns in the Nabatieh, Tyre and Bint Jbeil districts, according to the state’s National News Agency. Heavy artillery bombardment struck the outskirts of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, while Israeli drones launched three strikes on the towns of Mansouri and Aazziyeh in the Tyre district, causing a number of injuries. A separate drone strike targeted the town of Baraachit in Bint Jbeil district. Israel also struck Nabatieh al-Fawqa and the eastern outskirts of Kfartebnit.

  • Ten rockets were fired at Israeli forces in Kfar Tebnit, a town southeast of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, Al Jarida reported on Wednesday morning.

  • Journalist Hadi Hoteit, who was injured in an Israeli drone strike on Monday, remained hospitalized on Wednesday. Reporter Courtney Bonneau says Hoteit’s X-rays show his “body is full of shrapnel” and said that he is “lucky to be alive.”

• Israeli strikes kill four in south Lebanon, including in “double-tap” strike: Israeli attacks killed at least four people Tuesday in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency, including a deadly “double-tap” strike in Mayfadoun, where Al Jazeera reported a drone hit a vehicle and then struck the same site again after people gathered around the wreckage.

  • Separate drone strikes hit a vehicle in Shoukin, while the Israeli military said one of its strikes followed a “warning shot” fired near its forces operating in the area, and claimed it intercepted several rockets fired toward its troops before striking the launcher.

  • The Israeli army continued its push to seize and occupy additional areas of southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reported Tuesday, though Israeli military vehicles reportedly withdrew from the town of Khiam, according to Lebanese outlet Al Akhbar.

  • The Israeli military also conducted additional drone strikes in Beit Yahoun and Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa, and artillery shelling across seven locations, including Habboush, Jabal al-Rafii, and Burj al-Muluk.

• Amnesty: Israel’s no-return orders in southern Lebanon amount to war crime: Israel’s repeated use of mass “evacuation” orders in Lebanon violated international humanitarian law, with its no-return orders in parts of southern Lebanon amounting to the war crime of unlawful transfer, according to a report published Wednesday by Amnesty International. In a new investigation, the rights group found that Israel significantly expanded its use of displacement orders in 2026, preventing tens of thousands of residents from returning to their homes in a self-declared buffer zone covering about 6% of Lebanese territory, while it continued its destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure in the south. The organization called on Israeli forces to stop “forcibly uprooting communities and designating entire swathes of Lebanese land as no-go zones for civilians,” urging Israel to “immediately withdraw from Lebanese territory” and “provide reparation for victims of its international humanitarian law violations.” According to the report, the Israeli military issued 171 mass evacuation orders between September 2024 and May 2026, including 135 in 2026 alone, while expanding no-return zones and overseeing widespread destruction in southern border communities.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded: Over the last 24 hours, two Palestinians were killed and five were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. Six additional people, who succumbed to wounds sustained from earlier attacks, were added to the cumulative toll after their data was completed, the Palestinian Ministry of Health noted. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,005 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 3,157, while 784 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,016 killed, with 173,265 injured.

• Gaza Health Ministry warns it may suspend medical referral program amid Israeli restrictions: The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza warned on Wednesday that it may be forced to suspend its medical referral program if Israeli authorities do not increase the number of patients permitted to leave Gaza for treatment and ease travel procedures. In a statement, the ministry said it would begin publishing patient lists submitted through the World Health Organization for security clearances that have yet to receive a response. According to the ministry, around 3,000 cases have been submitted since February 2026 and remain awaiting the necessary approvals. The ministry said approvals are not issued according to the order in which requests are submitted, resulting in prolonged waiting periods and worsening suffering for patients.

• Israeli settlers set fire to two mosques, leave racist graffiti: Israeli settlers set fire to two mosques in the villages of Jaljilya and Mazra’a al-Nubani, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, early Wednesday, causing material damage and leaving racist and inciting graffiti on the walls of one of the sites, according to WAFA. Settlers reportedly infiltrated Jaljilya and attempted to burn down the village’s Grand Mosque, where residents confronted them as the fire broke out. Israeli forces later entered the village and fired tear gas and stun grenades. In a separate incident, settlers stormed Al-Farouq Mosque in Mazra’a al-Nubani and set it ablaze, damaging parts of the building and its contents. The Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned the attacks as a “dangerous assault” on places of worship, saying they form part of a political policy targeting “Islamic and Christian holy sites.”

• Israel approves 576 new settlement units, construction project in Hebron without Palestinian approval: Israeli authorities approved 576 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to Ynet, as well as the first construction project in Hebron in decades to proceed without Palestinian municipal approval—a 1,000 square meter building near Beit Romano. This follows comments by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday that he had approved the transfer of planning and construction authority around Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, from the Palestinian municipality to Israeli authorities. The move jettisons a critical part of a 1997 agreement—which emerged from the Oslo Accords—that gave Palestinians control over the city’s affairs. Israel’s Foreign Ministry later said the Hebron Protocol “had not been cancelled in its entirety,” and that the decision applies only to planning and construction related to settler areas and Jewish holy sites.

• U.S. pressures PA to withdraw international legal cases against Israel: The Trump administration is seeking a Palestinian Authority (PA) commitment to withdraw or halt legal cases against Israel in international forums as part of talks aimed at improving U.S.-PA relations and advancing a broader Gaza and normalization plan, The Times of Israel reported Tuesday.

  • U.S. and Palestinian officials have discussed a possible memorandum of understanding tied to Trump’s postwar Gaza plan, which envisions the PA eventually taking over governance of the Strip after carrying out reforms.

  • The discussions reportedly include potential U.S. support for reopening the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Washington and lifting sanctions on the PA if its desired reforms are completed.

  • The PA, for its part, has sought language calling for a halt to Israeli settlement expansion and stronger action against settler violence.

  • The U.S. is also seeking the release of more than $5 billion in withheld Palestinian tax revenues, though Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has blocked transfer proposals, and Washington is instead seeking to direct a significant portion of those funds to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the only Palestinian technocratic body overseen by the “Board of Peace,” rather than directly by the PA.

• Palestinian prisoner released after 26 months in Israeli detention without charge: Palestinian prisoner Ayman al-Fakhouri was released from Israeli prison on Tuesday after 26 months held without charge or trial, Quds News reported, sharing before-and-after images showing his severe physical deterioration in detention. He was held under Israel’s administrative detention system, which allows Palestinians to be detained indefinitely on secret evidence without being informed of the accusations against them or given a trial. Around 49% of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons are held without charge, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

• Trump claims credit for Israel’s survival, drawing pushback from U.S. ambassador: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “without the United States, there would be no Israel,” adding “without me, there would be no Israel, because no other president was willing to do what I did” in confronting Iran. At a conference in the occupied West Bank, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee pushed back against his own head of state, saying “without Israel, without the Jewish foundation, there would not be an America” and that the United States “owe[s] our very existence to what happened in this land.”

• ACLED: Israeli base-building in southern Syria signals bid for permanent foothold: A new analysis from ACLED says Israel’s military construction and expanding network of bases in southern Syria amount to an effort to establish a permanent foothold and reshape control in the south of the country. According to ACLED Middle East Research Manager Muaz Al Abdullah, Israel’s construction of a strategic military road through the Quneitra buffer zone is part of a broader effort to establish a permanent military presence following the collapse of the Assad government in December 2024. The group says Israeli forces have established nine military bases and outposts across southwestern Syria, including four outside the former buffer zone, while building military roads, electricity infrastructure, and aircraft landing pads. ACLED recorded 84 Israeli ground incursions into southern Syria in May 2026 alone, concentrated in Daraa and Quneitra. Al Abdullah said the roadway’s development “is a calculated bid to fundamentally redraw the lines of authority and spatial control within the border zone,” with parts of the area being absorbed into Israel’s “direct tactical and administrative sphere.” Read more about Israel’s operations in Quneitra from Drop Site contributor C.P. Ward here.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• Georgia and Alabama primary results:

  • Rep. Mike Collins is projected to defeat former college football coach Derek Dooley in the Georgia Senate Republican runoff, setting up a fall matchup with incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. The win is a major boost for President Donald Trump, who issued a last-minute endorsement for Collins over the weekend, pitting him against Gov. Brian Kemp, who had backed Dooley.

  • In the Georgia governor’s race, Republican candidate Rick Jackson spent $100 million of his own healthcare fortune to defeat Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. Jackson will face Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the general election.

  • Rep. Barry Moore won the Republican primary runoff in the Alabama Senate race, NBC News projected, making him the heavy favorite to succeed Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor. Moore, endorsed by President Donald Trump, defeated former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson after neither candidate cleared 50% in the May 19 primary. Trump held a tele-rally for Moore and reiterated his endorsement on Truth Social, calling him “an America First Patriot,” while the runoff turned negative after a Hudson-aligned group accused Moore of “stolen valor,” pointing to a 2024 letter criticizing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military record that listed Moore as a “staff sergeant.” Moore’s campaign said his discharge records show the rank of cadet with a pay grade of “E-6 Staff Sergeant,” and that he has never claimed that title or combat service, though in a 2020 ad Moore said he had “been in those combat boots” when referencing his service in the Army National Guard.

• Senate narrowly blocks war powers resolution on Iran: The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 47-48 to block a war powers resolution that would have directed President Donald Trump to end military hostilities against Iran, marking the first such vote since the U.S.-Iran framework agreement was announced. Four Republicans—Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Rand Paul—joined Democrats in backing the measure, while Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote against it.

• Trump invokes Defense Production Act to boost weapons: President Donald Trump quietly invoked the Defense Production Act last week to compel defense companies to speed up weapons production, citing concerns over munitions shortfalls that arose after the U.S.’s war on Iran, according to a memo filed in the Federal Register Tuesday, NBC News reported. War Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Senate Republicans, including John Cornyn, John Barrasso, and Lindsey Graham, on Tuesday to press for a $350 billion reconciliation package to replenish munitions, even as he publicly denied any shortage exists, telling CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “our stockpiles are strong and they will only get stronger” and calling shortage reports “a manufactured story.” Some Republicans, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, said the administration must justify the spending, while Democrats, including Sen. Chris Coons, have signaled reluctance to back supplemental funding while the war remains unresolved, with Coons saying he won’t let it “serve as the de facto authorization for the war”.

• Trump delays DNI nominee’s confirmation hearing, ties surveillance renewal to voter ID bill: President Donald Trump announced in a Wednesday post on Truth Social that he would delay Jay Clayton’s confirmation hearing to lead U.S. intelligence, citing frustration over a lapsed surveillance program and a stalled voter ID bill. Trump accused Democrats of reneging on a deal to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which lapsed amid bipartisan concerns over his initial pick for acting director, Bill Pulte, and said he will not approve its renewal without passage of what he calls the SAVE AMERICA Act, his voter ID legislation, which currently lacks sufficient support for passage in Congress. Trump also said he wants Clayton, currently U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to remain in that post until his proposed successor, Jamie McDonald, is confirmed. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that Trump’s installation of Pulte as acting DNI has made a bipartisan FISA deal “much harder” to reach, with Democrats citing concerns that Pulte could use the surveillance powers against the president’s political opponents.

• Fifteen charged in Minnesota over response to immigration crackdown: Federal prosecutors charged 15 people with conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers over their response to Minnesota’s “Operation Metro Surge” immigration crackdown, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy announced Tuesday in Minneapolis. The indictment names two Minneapolis-based groups, Direct Action Minnesota and Black Cat Worker’s Collective, alleging members used rapid response networks and the encrypted app Signal to track ICE agents, to set up “hard” and “soft” blockades at the agency’s St. Paul headquarters, and in one case followed an agent into western Wisconsin; 12 defendants were arrested Tuesday, one was already in federal custody, and two remain at large. The charges come as the U.S. attorney’s office has dropped 18 of 36 prior cases tied to the crackdown, during which agents killed two people, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, without facing charges.

• ProPublica: At least 776,000 children lost SNAP benefits despite GOP assurances they’d be protected: As a House committee debated President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill last year, Republican lawmakers including Reps. Glenn Thompson (Pa.), John Rose (Tenn.), and Dusty Johnson (S.D.) repeatedly said its changes to food stamps wouldn’t affect vulnerable people, but a ProPublica analysis of 12 reporting states found the number of children receiving food assistance has since fallen by at least 776,134, or 46% of all participants dropped, with Arizona seeing the largest decline at 55%. The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities separately found 700,000 fewer children received aid nationwide. Nationally, 4.3 million fewer people received SNAP in February 2026 compared to a year earlier, a decline experts attribute to new work requirements, increased paperwork burdens, and state agencies struggling to comply with new rules governing the program’s administrative costs.

• Pro-Reynoso PAC funded by labor unions, not AIPAC: Real Fight NYC, the PAC providing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso with undisclosed money in his campaign to represent New York’s 34th congressional district, is funded by labor unions, particularly the American Federation of Teachers, a source told Drop Site’s Ryan Grim on Wednesday, with City & State NY later corroborating this reporting. Grim said there had been speculation that AIPAC was funding the PAC, but that this was not accurate. Reynoso faces state Rep. Claire Valdez in a highly contested race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez.

• Drop Site’s Julian Andreone pressed senators on Capitol Hill about whether American taxpayers should be footing a $300 million bill for a White House renovation while their Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP benefits are being cut in the name of fiscal responsibility. Watch his full dispatch here.

Other International News

• U.S. military kills one in boat strike in eastern Pacific: The U.S. military conducted a strike against a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, killing one person, according to U.S. Southern Command. SOUTHCOM posted a video of the strike and said, “One male narco-terrorists was killed during this action, and there were two male survivors.” The U.S. has killed more than 200 people in over 60 strikes on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean since September.

• G7 agrees to expand sanctions on Russian oil and gas exports: G7 leaders agreed Tuesday to increase sanctions on Russian oil and gas exports in an effort to further reduce Moscow’s ability to fund its war in Ukraine, the Financial Times reports, with the agreement reached during talks in France attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump.

  • The United Kingdom and Canada separately announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet” of ships used to transport oil and gas exports around existing restrictions, and a French diplomatic source told the FT that falling energy prices linked to the emerging U.S.-Iran agreement made the new measures politically easier to support.

  • Zelenskyy urged additional pressure on Moscow, saying “Putin does not want to end the war, but he must be forced to do so, primarily through sanctions.”

• Sudanese gold miners killed in strikes near Egyptian border: Several Sudanese gold miners were killed and wounded on Tuesday by drone and heavy artillery strikes on artisanal mining sites in Sudan’s River Nile State, near the Egyptian border, with miners blaming the Egyptian military, Sudan Tribune reported. Workers said the strikes hit miners inside shafts and in their living quarters at the al-Ogaidat and al-Ansari sites, and also targeted vehicles attempting to evacuate the wounded, sending thousands fleeing into surrounding mountains and caves, with many still unaccounted for.

• Ecuador declares new state of emergency: Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a new 60-day state of emergency across 10 provinces and several additional municipalities on Tuesday, suspending constitutional rights and authorizing security forces to conduct searches of private homes without a judicial warrant when organized crime is suspected, according to Anadolu.

  • The decree, which uses cartel violence as its pretext, cites 879 homicides between May 1 and June 12 in the affected areas, which include key cocaine trafficking routes linking Colombia’s border to Ecuador’s Pacific ports.

  • Homicide and crime rates in Ecuador have risen to the highest in South America, even as the country’s government has become less democratic.

  • The move marks a reversal from comments Noboa made during a May visit to the United States, when he indicated he did not expect to renew emergency powers absent extraordinary circumstances, and comes shortly after a meeting at the Pentagon with U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to discuss joint military operations.

• Brazil’s Supreme Court sentences Eduardo Bolsonaro to prison over U.S. lobbying campaign: Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, to four years and two months in prison Tuesday, finding he illegally lobbied the Trump administration to sanction Brazilian judges and pressure them to halt his father’s coup trial. The unanimous ruling also bars him from public office for eight years, with Justice Alexandre de Moraes—himself sanctioned by Washington last July—saying a Brazilian lawmaker’s job “is not to lobby overseas against his own country.” Eduardo, who has lived in the United States since February 2025, was sentenced in absentia; his father is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

• Taiwan accuses Kenya of deporting delegates from oceans conference: Taiwan has accused Kenya of deporting two delegation members who planned to attend the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, blaming Beijing for exerting pressure on the East African country, according to Focus Taiwan.

  • Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the delegates’ passports and phones were confiscated and they were detained for more than 20 hours before being deported, condemning what it called “barbaric acts” that violate human rights and international norms.

  • Kenya’s Foreign Ministry defended the decision, with Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei saying the country’s foreign policy “recognises only one China” and that anyone holding a Taiwanese passport would not have proper documentation to cross its borders.

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